Scratch Golfer vs PGA Tour Pro: The Real Data Behind a 5-Shot Gap

I often hear when I play golf with others,"are you going to play professionally one day?" This is after playing a round of golf with them and shooting right around par, a little below or a little over. I don't know how to tell them that I am not even close to them right now, My 72 on the course I played would be a 63 or 64 by them. Way different.

Hi. I am Coach Erik Schjolberg of EJS Golf, The Science of Better golf. I am writing this blog post so golfers can get closer to seeing how really great the greats are on the PGA Tour and that the average and even the scratch golfer is nothing like them. This is in hoped that the average golfer learns to play their game, what they need to do at the level they are. If you shoot in the 90s or above, no. 1 should be more greens in regulation, simple. Please feel free to reply to this post with your thoughts.

When I strip this down to numbers only and look at large-sample datasets (Arccos, Shot Scope, ShotLink/PGA Tour, MyGolfSpy), the gap between a “typical” PGA Tour professional and a scratch golfer is very clear. Below, “pro” refers to the PGA Tour average male professional; “scratch” is a 0-index player tracked by Arccos or Shot Scope.

1. Scoring and course setup

Scratch golfers in the Shot Scope database average about 2.01 shots over par per round for the season, which on a par-72 layout comes out right around 74.0. (National Club Golfer)

The overall PGA Tour scoring average in recent seasons sits just over 71.0 strokes per round (71.09 is the published “Tour Average” scoring figure). (PGA Tour)

A 2025 MyGolfSpy analysis using Shot Scope data reports essentially the same thing from another direction: scratch golfers averaging about 74 from roughly 6,200 yards, versus Tour pros averaging about 71.4 from roughly 7,200 yards. (MyGolfSpy)

So, in raw scoring terms, Tour pros are roughly 2.5–3 strokes per round better than scratch while usually playing about 1,000 yards more course.

A classic study comparing 2015 Tour scoring and scratch data went a step further: it found Tour players were 2.25 strokes better in scoring average, and their courses were 3.2 strokes harder by Course Rating, for a normalized gap of about 5.45 shots per round when you put everyone on equally rated tees. (GolfWRX)

2. Driving: distance and accuracy

Using Arccos and PGA Tour stats compiled by Golf Monthly:

• Driving distance
  – Scratch: 259 yards average off the tee
  – PGA Tour: 299.9 yards average off the tee (Golf Monthly)

That’s a ~41-yard advantage for the pro on every par 4 and par 5 where both players hit driver.

• Fairways hit
  – Scratch: 51% of fairways
  – PGA Tour: 59.09% of fairways (Golf Monthly)

So pros are not only roughly 40 yards longer, they also hit the fairway about 8 percentage points more often.

TrackMan’s “Tour Averages” back this up on the pro side: PGA Tour players average about 115 mph club speed, 171 mph ball speed and roughly 280+ yards of carry with the driver. (Golf Monthly)

3. Approach play: greens in regulation and proximity

From the same Arccos/PGA Tour comparison:

• Greens in regulation (GIR) – all holes
  – Scratch: 56% GIR (≈ 10.1 greens per round)
  – PGA Tour: 66.32% GIR (≈ 13.4 greens per round) (Golf Monthly)

That is a gap of about 10 percentage points or roughly 3 extra greens per round for the pro.

From the 2025 MyGolfSpy / Shot Scope analysis:

• Overall approach proximity (all approach shots)
  – Tour pro: ~37 feet average distance from the hole
  – Scratch: ~65 feet average distance from the hole (MyGolfSpy)

• From 175–200 yards
  – Tour pro: hits the green about 60% of the time
  – Scratch: hits the green about 37% of the time (MyGolfSpy)

• From 200–225 yards
  – Scratch: only 25% GIR and typically leaves the ball 78–102 feet from the hole
  – Tour pros hit roughly twice as many greens from this range (≈ 50% GIR implied) (MyGolfSpy)

So on approach, professionals are hitting more greens and, just as important, hitting them much closer—on the order of 30 feet nearer the hole on average.

4. Short game: scrambling and bunkers

Short-game differences are smaller, but still quantifiable:

• Scrambling / up-and-down after a missed green
  – PGA Tour pros: save par about 60% of the time
  – Scratch golfers: save par about 54% of the time (MyGolfSpy)

A 6-percentage-point edge here is roughly one extra up-and-down every 16–17 misses.

• Sand saves (greenside bunkers)
  – Tour pros: convert about 58% of bunker shots
  – Scratch golfers: convert around 37% (MyGolfSpy)

That’s a 21-point gap in sand performance, which is massive in stroke-gained terms.

5. Putting: one-putts, three-putts, and total putts

Arccos and PGA Tour putting stats (again via Golf Monthly) give a clean comparison: (Golf Monthly)

• Total putts per round
  – Scratch: 30.7 putts
  – Tour pro: 29.02 putts

So pros use about 1.7 fewer putts per round on average.

• Three-putts per round
  – Scratch: 1.3 three-putts per round
  – Tour pro: 0.49 three-putts per round

Pros are three-putting about 0.8 times less per round, roughly one fewer three-putt every 1–2 rounds.

• One-putts per round
  – Scratch: 5.2 one-putts per round
  – Tour pro: 7.07 one-putts per round

That’s almost two extra one-putts per round for the pro.

MyGolfSpy’s 2025 analysis expresses this in percentages: one-putt rates of about 40% for Tour pros versus 34% for scratch golfers, and confirms that bunker and putting performance are where the short-game gap really shows up. (MyGolfSpy)

6. Birdies, bogeys, and scoring profile

Using Arccos scratch data and PGA Tour scoring stats compiled by Golf Monthly: (Golf Monthly)

• Birdies per round
  – Scratch: 2.2 birdies per round
  – PGA Tour pro: 3.72 birdies per round

That’s roughly 1.5 more birdies per round for the pro.

• Bogeys per round
  – Scratch: 4.6 bogeys per round
  – PGA Tour pro: 2.59 bogeys per round

So pros card about 2 fewer bogeys per round.

• Par-by-par scoring (PGA Tour vs scratch)
  – Par-3 scoring: 3.06 (Tour) vs 3.1 (scratch)
  – Par-4 scoring: 4.03 (Tour) vs 4.2 (scratch)
  – Par-5 scoring: 4.63 (Tour) vs 4.7 (scratch) (Golf Monthly)

On a typical 4–10–4 par-3/par-4/par-5 layout, those par-by-par gaps translate into about 71.1 for the Tour pro versus 73–74 for the scratch golfer, right in line with the season-long scoring numbers above.

7. Compact numeric summary (per-round averages)

All drawn directly from the sources cited above (Arccos, Shot Scope, PGA Tour, MyGolfSpy, Golf Monthly):

• Scoring: Scratch ≈ 74.0 vs PGA Tour ≈ 71.0–71.4 (≈ 2.5–3 strokes better for the pro) (National Club Golfer)

• Driving distance: Scratch 259 yds vs PGA Tour 299.9 yds (≈ 41-yd advantage to pro) (Golf Monthly)

• Fairways hit: Scratch 51% vs PGA Tour 59.09% (≈ +8 percentage points for pro) (Golf Monthly)

• GIR: Scratch 56% (≈10.1 greens) vs PGA Tour 66.32% (≈13.4 greens) (≈ 3 more greens for pro) (Golf Monthly)

• Approach proximity (all): Scratch ≈ 65 ft vs Tour ≈ 37 ft (≈ 30 ft closer for pro) (MyGolfSpy)

• Scrambling: Scratch 54% vs Tour 60% up-and-down success (MyGolfSpy)

• Sand saves: Scratch 37% vs Tour 58% (MyGolfSpy)

• Putts per round: Scratch 30.7 vs Tour 29.02 (≈ 1.7 putts better for pro) (Golf Monthly)

• Three-putts: Scratch 1.3 vs Tour 0.49

• One-putts: Scratch 5.2 vs Tour 7.07

• Birdies: Scratch 2.2 vs Tour 3.72

• Bogeys: Scratch 4.6 vs Tour 2.59 (Golf Monthly)

That is the statistically documented gap: longer and slightly straighter off the tee, more greens, closer proximities, higher scramble and sand-save rates, fewer three-putts, more one-putts, more birdies and fewer bogeys—adding up to a multi-stroke advantage every round even before you normalize for the extra 1,000 yards and tougher setups the pros face.

Hope this helps with where you are in your golf game. I think it is important for perspective. Knowing that a scratch golfer averages around 30 putts per round and you are a 10 handicap averaging 33, that would be pretty good. Golf comes down to perspective often.

Coach Erik Schjolberg

EJS Golf | Scottsdale, AZ

The Science of Better Golf